Indoor tennis improves the quality of game by 20 percent, says Zeeshan Ali

Zeeshan Ali is India’s Davis Cup coach. (Source: zeeshanalitenniscademy.com)

Team India’s Davis Cup coach Zeeshan Ali has claimed that Indian players will do well in playoff ties of the tournament since the matches will be played indoors. Citing that the indoor matches will be perfect for tennis the Indian coach also added that India stands a good chance of making to the World Cup. The World Group Play-off ties begin from September 15 in Edmonton.

Speaking to the PTI, Zeeshan said, “Playing indoors is something our players like especially Yuki (Bhambri). He played top class tennis the last time we played indoors against New Zealand. I don’t really see any disadvantages for us but then it also doesn’t give us any advantage over them”.

“The conditions are perfect playing on indoor courts as there is no outside elements to worry about like wind and sun. The quality of tennis automatically goes up by about 20 percent,” he added.

Zeeshan also stated that India stands a good chance of making it to the World Group especially with the injury to Milos Raonic. “With Raonic injured, we expected this team except for Brayden Schnur, who is a bit of an unknown entity. Denis Shapovalov is having a great post-Wimbledon season and is in form. It won’t be an easy tie but the chances are the best we have had in four years”.

He also revealed that the Indian team had a week’s training on the indoor courts at the University of Columbia. This also helped the Indian team.

“Having this camp was a very good idea as fitness is a cause of concern with our players. It gave us more time to evaluate players, who might be nursing an injury or are not fit enough to play five sets on consecutive days even if they are not injured. The camp went off very well. We did about four hours of training everyday. Most importantly, we got to practice indoors. We also played matches on the last day of the camp with the Columbia tennis team,” he concluded.